Well, that was a rough week. Frustrating losses on the field and on the ice coupled with off-field tragedy made this Thanksgiving break a particularly difficult one for the Yale community, particularly sports fans. But if there’s one thing Yale athletes and their supporters tend to have, it’s perspective. Which means if there’s one thing »

Only one man on the Yale roster has ever beaten Harvard. While relative literacy rates of the two teams would suggest that Yale players would be (much…) more aware of the odds stacked against them, they are also well aware that no game in a rivalry like this is played on that particular page. Instead, »

As I was walking through Commons yesterday, looking at all the anti-Harvard apparel, purchasing my 18th pair of “Harvard Sucks” sunglasses, and wondering, “wait, did Harvard actually kill the dinosaurs …?” it hit me: maybe we’ve been a little too hard on our neighbors to the north. Wait. Don’t stop reading. I’m serious: In this »

For everyone who spent the weekend in a panicked coma after the hockey team’s loss to Cornell (everybody breathe, it’s going to be fine), you missed a historic weekend in the world of Yale sports. Two Yale teams, women’s volleyball and field hockey, clinched Ivy League titles within just hours of each other — the »

Halloween is rapidly approaching, and at Yale, that means a terrifying mix of strangely-colored dining hall foods, unbelievably over-thought-out costumes and general chaos. But for Yale athletes, horrors like those don’t just come once a year. Life in the “House of Payne” is no walk in the park: ask any varsity, club or Jonathan Edwards »

A cliché used by many, believed by few. Tell a Division I football coach whose livelihood is tied inextricably to wins and losses that winning doesn’t matter. Tell the Yankees (or me…) that their seven-game ALCS loss to the Sox in ’04 was a “nice try.” Tell Yale football players that it’s not whether or »

Well, here we are again. The last week of September. The remnants of summer are holding on for dear life, schedules are set, and the post-shopping-period panic has set in. Midterms loom, the Red Sox are choking, and fall sports’ Ivy League schedules are starting. It’s fall again. And while some aspects of autumn’s arrival »

Unfortunately for athletes everywhere (and the guys at BALCO …) there is no magic formula for creating a champion. Certainly the traditional “blood, sweat and tears,” goes into it somewhere, and I guess a relentless work ethic probably helps. Talent’s obviously a must, and that whole undying-belief-in-yourself, never-giving-up thing can’t hurt. Clear eyes, full heart »

Oddly enough, when most people hear “Yale,” they don’t immediately think “sports.” Distracted by a variety of Yale’s other prominent features (world class faculty, unparalleled tradition and, of course, GHeav) most casual observers overlook one of the world-class components of this world-class institution: athletics. World-class athletics at Yale, you ask? Certainly when it comes to »

Following a grueling opening weekend at Johnson Field, the Yale field hockey team (0–2) looks to bounce back this weekend with games at Hofstra and No. 16 Albany. Last weekend, the Bulldogs held No. 16 Stanford (tied in rank with Albany) scoreless for 60 of 70 minutes, but for the other ten, which came a »

It was an unpredictable opening weekend for the Yale field hockey team. The Bulldogs played two rollercoaster games and suffered two losses, despite leading No. 20 Stanford for 40 minutes and despite an improbable comeback in the final minutes of the first half against Quinnipiac. An early 11 a.m. start time Saturday did not faze »

This year, with its seven top scorers and 13 letter winners back from a team that finished second in the Ivy League last year, the Yale field hockey team is looking to defy a challenging schedule and make a statement in its season opener against No. 20 Stanford on Saturday morning at Johnson Field. The »